Semiconductor devices are used in a variety of electronic applications, such as personal computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and other electronic equipment. Semiconductor devices are typically fabricated by sequentially depositing insulating or dielectric layers, conductive layers, and semiconductor layers of material over a semiconductor substrate, and patterning the various material layers using lithography to form circuit components and elements thereon.
One of the more important drivers for increased performance in semiconductor devices is the higher levels of integration of circuits. This is accomplished by miniaturizing or shrinking device sizes on a given chip. However, as technology nodes shrink, processing and manufacturing of these semiconductor devices becomes more and more challenging.